The Panthers didn’t build championship team through the draft, so GM Kent Hughes could find more value in a trade of the No. 26 pick.
With the NHL Draft slated for this weekend there will be a lot of talk about teams — including the Canadiens — building through the draft.
The Canadiens — heading into their third full season of a rebuild under Jeff Gorton, the executive vice-president of hockey operations, and general manager Kent Hughes — hold 12 picks heading into the draft, which starts with the first round Friday night at The Sphere in Las Vegas (7 p.m., SN, TVA Sports, TSN 690, 98.5 FM), followed by rounds 2-7 on Saturday (11:30 a.m., SN, SN1, TSN 690).
The Canadiens hold two first-round picks again this year — No. 5 and No. 26 — and it would be surprising if Hughes doesn’t trade the latter pick for a third straight year.
Eight of the players on the Panthers roster were acquired in trades: forwards Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Vladimir Tarasenko, Steven Lorentz, Eetu Luostarinen and Kyle Okposo, along with defenceman Brandon Montour.
Ten players were acquired through free agency: forwards Nick Cousins, Ryan Lomberg, Evan Rodrigues, Kevin Stenlund and Carter Verhaeghe; defencemen Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Dmitri Kulikov and Niko Mikkola; and goalies Sergei Bobrovsky and Anton Stolarz. One Panthers player, defenceman Gustav Forsling, was claimed off waivers.
The Panthers don’t have a first-round pick this year after trading it to the Philadelphia Flyers on March 19, 2022 in exchange for Claude Giroux, who left for the Ottawa Senators four months later as a free agent after Florida lost in the second round of the playoffs.
The Panthers don’t have a first-round pick next year, either, which was dealt to Calgary as part of the blockbuster trade on July 22, 2022 that landed Tkachuk and also sent Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar and Cole Schwindt to the Flames. Tkachuk has become a superstar with the Panthers, posting 66-131-197 totals over the last two seasons. Huberdeau has struggled in Calgary with 27-80-107 totals since the trade after posting 30-85-115 totals during his final season in Florida.
There’s no doubt Huberdeau misses the Florida sunshine. Who wouldn’t?
Zito has quite a few things working in his favour when it comes to keeping the free agents he wants and acquiring new ones. There’s the fact he now has a championship team, a very respected coach in Paul Maurice and (a biggie) there is no state income tax in Florida on those multimillion-dollar contracts. There’s also the sunshine that Huberdeau obviously misses and a brand-new, state-of-the art practice facility that the Panthers opened this season in Fort Lauderdale.
The practice facility, which cost more than US$65 million to build, includes two rinks, a team store and a restaurant. The Panthers hired a full-time chef for players at the facility, which includes a players’ lounge, an outdoor patio with barbecues, outdoor Pickleball courts and a state-of-the art indoor gym with huge windows.
Since most of the Panthers players live in and around Fort Lauderdale and get around on golf carts, there is also a golf-cart parking lot at the practice facility.
That sure beats driving over the Champlain Bridge during a January snowstorm for Canadiens players getting to their practice facility in Brossard. For Huberdeau, it certainly beats driving in a Calgary winter to the outdated Saddledome.
Did I mention there’s no state income tax in Florida?